“Institutions do all the things that are supposed to be bad. They impede personal exploration. They enforce conformity. But they often save us from our weaknesses and give meaning to life.” — David Brooks

“Most of them seemed to be Twittering the conference as they went, and following each other’s Twitter feeds. Surreal moment: At one point, the guy sitting closest to me was reading a blog post containing a photo of the guy sitting immediately behind him.” — Owen Thomas

“I am not in favor of immortality. I believe death for humans is the way of getting rid of accumulated errors – as in trial and error. Without death, the old folks would start to gang up on the babies (the new trials). Immortality —> immortal mistakes.” — Esther Dyson

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett

“When people use your electronic systems to do anything, renew a fishing license, register a pregnancy, apply for planning permission, give them the option to collaborate with other people going through or affected by the same process. They will feel less alone, and will help your services to reform from the bottom up.” — Tom Steinberg (via Scott Heiferman)

“If only I could figure out a way to make money by holding fashionable opinions decades prematurely.” — Charles Platt

“The perfect war is started for obscure reasons, is hopelessly murderous, and accomplishes nothing.” — Errol Morris

“As you make a prototype, assume you are right and everyone else is wrong. When you share your prototype, assume you are wrong and everyone else is right.” – Diego Rodriguez

“The World Wide Web was precisely what we were trying to PREVENT– ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can’t follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management.” – Ted Nelson

“The thought of people in this day and age sitting down to listen to a radio variety show on Saturday evening is rather implausible and was even more so in 1974 when we started “A Prairie Home Companion.” Thank goodness Minnesota Public Radio was too poor to afford good advice or the show never would’ve got on the air. We only did it because we knew it would be fun to do. It was a dumb idea. I wish I knew how to be that dumb again.” — Garrison Keillor

“Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you’re about as likely to find someone else interested in it.” — Lore Sjöberg

“This is my long-run forecast in brief: The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Within a century or two, all nations and most of humanity will be at or above today’s Western living standards. I also speculate, however, that many people will continue to think and say that the conditions of life are getting worse.” — Julian Simon